


my heart is true as steel

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs a Hug, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Community: fan_flashworks, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Prose Poem, Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-08-14 17:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20195995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Agreste men love most dangerously. —This is false: is false: is false—





	my heart is true as steel

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: heart

Agreste men love most dangerously.

(—This is false: it comes to Adrien from Gabriel—who got it from his mother; she from hers.)

Agreste men are a sturdy sort. Stubborn, also. Strong.

(—This is false, and so it's been for generations: spun glass, their hearts, and spiderwebbed with cracks.)

Agreste men deserve better.

(—This is false: it must be—what is 'better'? what's 'deserve'? and why?)

Agreste men _are_ better.

(—This is false: that Adrien and Gabriel still stand, when Émilie still lies, Snow White in glass, and Marinette sprawls red and still across the grass—no victory for either man.)

Agreste men choose rightly.

(—This is false: is false: is false: and both men hear a heartbeat, and do not know whose it is—)

Agreste men steer straight.

(—This is false: is false: is false: what sailboat keeps its heading in a storm? but Gabriel claims to rule the storm—a metaphor: he does not have Kagami, he cannot command Ryūko—he claims to rule the very storm that roils his son between the waves.)

Agreste men sacrifice.

(—This is false: is false: is false: pruning twigs is not a loss, and Adrien's still standing, and Marinette is not. There's more that he could offer her: he stands—that's proof enough.)

Agreste men love: a danger, danger.

(—This is false: is false: is false—)

Agreste men love—

"For Émilie, I'd burn the world."

Agreste men love—

"You're her son. You understand."

Agreste men love: it's false, it's false—

"—I am her son. And _your_ son too. And she's your wife—and _she's_ my _partner_." More important: Ladybug's _alive_.

Agreste men love: a danger, danger—

"Did you think I'm nothing like you? Did you truly think that, Father?"

Agreste men love—

(For Émilie, a world on fire.)

"Why would—how could you think that?"

(With Marinette, he'll save it.)

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
